Astrid Reischwitz
Votes for Women
A widely distributed “Votes for Women” china was commissioned by Newport socialite Alva Belmont (1853-1933), who was a major figure in the American women’s suffrage movement. I encountered the china on a visit to Mrs. Belmont’s Marble House Estate Museum in Rhode Island and incorporated it in this photography project as an anchor, a reminder that equal rights should be as much part of daily life as everyday china. It is a salute to the willingness of the women of the suffrage movement to challenge convention.
Astrid Reischwitz is a Boston-based photographer whose work explores storytelling from a personal perspective. Her projects include intimate views of private spaces, and reflections on her own history and values. Using keepsakes from family life, old photographs, and storytelling strategies, she builds a visual world of memory, identity, place, and home. Her current focus is the exploration of personal and collective memory influenced by her upbringing in Germany. Reischwitz has exhibited at national museums and galleries including Newport Art Museum, Griffin Museum of Photography, Danforth Art Museum, Photographic Resource Center, The Center for Fine Art Photography (CO), Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, and Center for Photographic Art (CA). Reischwitz was a Top 50 photographer at Photolucida’s Critical Mass in 2019 and 2016 and a Finalist for the 2017 Lens Culture Exposure Awards.
She was awarded solo exhibitions at Soho Photo Gallery and The Center for Fine Art Photography. Reischwitz is a two-time Category Winner at the 14th Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers, and a Category Winner at the 14th Pollux Awards.
Reischwitz is a graduate of the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany, with a PhD in Chemistry. She holds a Certificate in Arts Administration from New York University.
